UK Musicians get double dose of good news

If you’ve been paying attention recently, you may have noticed British artists such as Mumford & Sons, Muse and Adele doing pretty well for themselves in the US charts.

Shiting units like nobody’s business, such artists are the latest in a long line of limeys to infiltrate the homes of American audiences, a trend which began with The Beatles and never really went away since.

What’s more, there could be many more to follow if DIY musicians continue to receive the  kind of good news they’ve been privy to recently.

Let there be gigs
First up comes a report from UK Music, a body representing musicians and others in the UK music industry, which suggests that as many as 13,000 venues in England and Wales could now potentially play host to live music for the first time ever.

This comes thanks to the Live Music Act 2012, a national government amendment to the Licensing Act of 2003 which decrees that music venues with a capacity of under 200 no longer require a license to host live music.

In cutting the costs and proverbial red tape which are an inevitable part of acquiring such a license, the act makes it significantly easier for pubs, clubs and other venues to stage music events. 

On top of the 13,000 venues previously prevented from booking bands, the UK Music report also suggests that a further 24,000 could greatly expand their live music offering.

Though thousands of new venues are hardly likely to spring up overnight, the news does at least provide a potential abundance of opportunities for British musicians, creating more opportunities to hone their craft, develop a following and generate income.

For American artists and those from other countries, this could also open opportunities to cross the pond and head out on tour; the more places there are to play on that cold little island, the easier it becomes to plan a tour which won’t break the budget.

Kickstartin’ in the UK

Speaking of touring, or recording an album, or any number of other things musicians do which cost money, the Brits had even more reasons to be cheery recently with the announcement that everybody’s favorite (or not) crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter, is launching in the United Kingdom.

Sites like Music Think Tank abound with stories of US artists successfully launching an album or generating enough income to head out on the road thanks to Kickstarter, and now their contemporaries throughout Britain are afforded the same opportunities. 

Musicians, artists and other creative types can go  ahead immediately and start creating their pages on the site, though Kickstarter says they will only start posting British-based projects from October 31st.

With more opportunities to perform, record and develop their band as a business than ever before, there could soon be many more UK acts following the likes of Mumford & Sons in achieving enough homebased success to fuel their own US invasion.

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Chris Skoyles is a former music journalist and festival promoter who now runs Almost Famous Music, a live music marketing and management company. Almost Famous works with artists, venues and promoters in both the United States and United Kingdom to expand their business, ehance their live music offering and entertain audiences. 

Chris tweets at @Cskoyles and provides his personal thoughts on writing, music and creativity on his blog.